MOVING!!!

We moved!  Well, sort of.  We are kind of in between moves right now! 

As I am sure everyone knows(and is probably way sick of hearing about!), we have been wanting to move for years and pretty much actively looking to move for 2 years now.  Even last spring we got preapproved for a home loan and thought we were ready to go. But when it came down to it, we just were not ready to make the leap.  (We dearly loved our old house, but our family needed more space, and the open layout was great when the kids are little, but as they get older, probably not so much!)  But in the meantime we had gone though tons of model homes to figure out exactly what we want.  (Since we have been doing this for 2 years, you can bet we are pretty specific about what we want now!!)  So, this past fall/winter we decided it was time to pull the trigger and finally do it.  Well, then it was close to the holidays and having the house show ready over the holidays didn’t sound that much fun! 

 Right after the first of the year we got a storage unit and decluttered a bit and put a bunch of stuff in storage.  One of the main reasons we were moving is that we were busting at the seams of our house…and it showed!  So, we got it looking spiffy and got it on the market.  It looked so good then I would have bought it!  Apparently I did a good of getting it ready because the the stagers showed up they said we didn't need to change anything!

If you have ever had the house on the market with kids, you know how much not fun it is!  I literally vacuumed almost nightly and shampooed carpets weekly!  (I still work full time as well).  The main inconvenience though was over half of our 4-6 showings a week were anywhere from 15-30 minutes notice!  We spent a lot of time eating out or at my moms house!  Luckily the house sold in 43 days and closed 40 days later, which I guess is relatively quick these days, but it got old, quick!  During this time we were going through the process of finding a new home.  We already knew we were going to build, so we had to find a subdivision and a house we wanted!  We were really having internal struggles on deciding what we wanted (that also fit in the budget).   We really thought we had one picked out, but the more we looked at it closely, we realized that parts of it didn’t really work for our family.  Our goal of this house is so that our family can grow into it.  We didn’t want to be in the same position in a few years where we were running out of space.  The other house looked great, but we started looking closer, we realized that there really wasn’t that much storage, and the pantry wasn’t that great.  And while the master closet was amazing and had more room then we could probably ever need (and that is alot!), the kids rooms were really small.    We kept looking and decided that we need to find one that not just wowed us, but first prioriy was that it ‘worked’ for our family and how we lived.  I think what we found does both!    Then, we found  a subdivision that is almost right across from the school and has awesome ammenities!  It is only a  few blocks from our old house.   We are SO VERY EXCITED!    The fun part is starting now and getting ready to pick everything out.  Do you know we get to decide which way every single door swings?!  How crazy is that!  I never dreamed we would be that involved!

So, since the house sold and closed in May, and the new house not done until late summer, we were homeless! We had started looking into apartments when my mom kept offering for us to stay with her.  I called her up one night and said, I know you are being nice, but are you 100% sure you want us there. Really think about what that means.  It means giving up your quiet house and having a little chaos for a few months!  Then I talked to Justin and basically left it up to him.  He was all for it and thought it was a good idea!  So, we all moved in with mom!   And it has gone great!    We have plenty of room and the kids love it!  (And I think mom enjoys having us (who am I kidding, having the boys, there!)  It has given us a chance to relax a bit from all of the stress of moving and such and just enjoy the summer.    Easton has been a bit confused since the move.  He isn’t sad, but sometimes he will ask why we are not going to his house.   The move didn’t seem to faze Payton at all.  He was a huge help on moving day and is really excited for his new room and yard.   They love to run around the dirt piles at the new lot. 

The packing and the move itself were pretty stressful.  I think I literally lost it a few times.  Justin was working, a LOT.  So I literally packed every single box we had, except 1!    It was a lot of very late nights of packing!!  I also had to decide with everything, was it going in storage, or did we need it the next few months.  At the end we were sleeping on an air mattress, eatting on the floor with paper plates!  Looking back now though, it was kind of fun! 

We also had the dilemma of what to do with all of our stuff!   We got portable storage units (3 total) that are filled with our belongings and they will be delivered to the new house.  They are currently in a warehouse.  We hired movers to move all of the furniture into them and will have movers help unload them on the back end when we move into the new house.   

I will add new pictures as the build goes along to see the stages of the new house!

Easton turns 3!!

My feisty little red head is now 3!!  It seems like now that he is 3, overnight he just became a big boy!

Interesting 3 facts about Easton:

1.        He now has 3 freckles on his nose (which he calls pretzels!)

2.       The numbers from when he was born are all divisible by 3.  6-9-9, and the numbers of his 3rd birthday all increase by 3.  6-9-12

3.       He has had 3 surgeries in 3 years!

4.       He is  33 pounds!

He also still adores his big brother (but now fights with him a lot as well!).  He has started actually calling him Payton.  But he will usually start out still calling him P-P.  It usually goes like this when trying to get his attention, P….P.…P-P, Payton!

Easton pretty much chatters non-stop.  He can and will do anything that the bigger kids are doing.  Right now he is really into coloring and building blocks.   He still has the funniest personality and tells people that he is silly.

This year for his birthday, we decided that instead of doing a big party, we were just going to go to a park and play.   There has been so much going on with the move that we thought simple was better. Justin thought we could just skip a party, which I told him he was just crazy!  Birthdays are special and need to be treated so!   So we had sort of a mini party at a local park and it worked out great.  Easton is really into Little Einsteins right now, so we did a Little Einsteins themed cake, etc.  Then on Sunday, the 4 of us went to Schiltterbaun waterpark for a day of fun!  I think he had a good time and he has told me numerous times that he really likes birthday cake!  I think that boy has a sweet tooth!  So the opposite of his health nut brother!!

Spring 2012 and end of school year fun!

Payton is now a second grader!  The end of the school year is always busy with fun end of year activities.  This year we had a huge fundraiser that I volunteered on, for the school and it was a family walk a thon and silent auction.  It was a huge success and I think the families ha d a good time.  The end of the year also brought Grandparents day and the book fair.  So grandma got to go and have lunch with Payton and then he talked her into getting him some more books.  He is a pretty good negotiator like that!  The last week of school is filled with awards ceremonies, field days and last day of school parties!  Not sure much learning gets done that week!  (Or work for that matter as parents go to a lot of these activites!!)

Spring also brought on another season of soccer.  Paytons team went undefeated this year!  He played the same league that he did for football and really enjoyed it.  He has improved a lot the last year or so.  As soon as soccer was over, he started tennis, which runs pretty much up until football season.  So, there go all of our weekends until about November!   He is still doing swimming weekly and loves it.  It is the one sport that he would do all day, everyday if you let him.  I probably need to start looking into swim teams, but there is a much larger time commitment and I am just not sure if we (meaning me) is ready for all of that yet!

Yes...We are alive and doing well!!

I have completely neglected our blog lately. I have tried to sit down and update it… I really have! But every time I get in front of the computer, there is usually a stack of bills or work that take priority over it.
The last few months for us have been extremely busy, but in a good way. (Well, mostly good. I have been very busy at work lately. We are in the middle of a large conversion and it is keeping us working a lot. There are many nights that I am logging in from home and working after the kids go to bed.) But, besides that, the kids activities and school (holiday parties, book fairs, PTO meetings, football, swimming…etc…etc…!) is keeping us on our toes. Especially close to the holidays. Justin also works a ton around the holidays. Working retail, that is to be expected. He refers to me as a retail widow from about the beginning of November until January 1! This year was especially crazy, because he switched stores in September and got the job of Store Manager in December. We are so excited for him! After all of the many years of working towards it, he finally has his own store. Somewhere during this time, we all got sick as well. That just added to the craziness!
The only time I get to myself to get things done are between the hours of about 10pm and 1-2am. (It is 12:47am right now…See what I mean!). So, the little bit of time that I would have had to update the blog, I decided that sleep sounded like a better idea. Yes, that is correct…I choose sleep! I have tried to catch up the last few months in a few different posts below…so they may be a bit rambled as I try and remember what we all did!

We had a great 2011 filled with lots of fun memories. I am excited for what 2012 has to bring for our family!

Christmas festivities!

This year was filled with tons of fun holiday activities! I think the highlight was Paytons school musical. Each year the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes do a winter musical. This year it was called the Littlest Christmas Tree. It is mostly singing, but there are some speaking parts as well. The kids try out during class and Payton got the lead role of Santa Claus! We were so proud of him! The other speaking parts had one or two lines and he had 10 that he had to memorize. We worked hard and practiced almost every day! He looked so adorable in his costume! They all did so good and we were so proud of him! I think at the end of the musical, my sister, my mom and myself were all crying! (Shocking, I know!)
In November my mom and I took the kids to Branson for the weekend to go to the Old Time Christmas at Silver Dollar City. I have never been to Branson, (not that I remember at least, apparently I went as a child). But, it was a really pretty area and I am sure it would be a lot of fun in the summer! The Christmas lights and parade at Silver Dollar City were so neat. We booked a lunch with Santa and that was a big hit for the boys. Unfortunately, with Justin working mandatory weekends during the holidays, he didn’t get to go with us.
One of the other fun things we did was go on a hayrack ride through our neighborhood! Our subdivision puts it on every year. Santa was there and they had a hot chocolate bar!
We had a really great Christmas this year. The boys are so into everything Christmas related. Easton loves the lights and trees and Payton is all about Santa. Easton really got it this year that Santa was coming to his house. If you asked him what he wanted he would say, Choo Choo, Elmo, both! On Christmas Eve we were tracking Santa on TV and Payton was so into it! He had to find a globe so he could figure out exactly where they were talking about! It was so fun that the boys were so into everything. It really makes the holidays so special. After we did our thing on Christmas morning, we went over to my moms and celebrated over there as well. I was worried that the boys would not last as they were up late on Christmas eve and then the long day on Christmas, but they did great! I was actually really impressed with both of them. Especially Easton, I was sure that he was going to be tearing into presents and such, but he always waited his turn and did so good!

Payton is 7!!

Payton turned 7! Seven seems like such a big number! It seems so much older then 6 for some reason. So hard to believe that my first baby is 7! Payton continues to amaze me on how bright, sweet, sensitive and caring he is. He is a wonderful student and is a great big brother. We could not be more proud of him. This past year he has really changed. He has gotten over being shy and is the student counsel representative for his class. He pretty much loves everything about school. He has gotten much more into sports and loved playing football (especially when he was playing quarterback) and enjoys swimming.
On the day before his actual birthday, I went had had lunch with him at school. Eating lunch with a bunch of elementary school students is always very entertaining! For his birthday we decided to go with an astronomy theme. He likes to study the planets so it seemed fitting. We just had some local family over to the house and ate and had cake and he opened presents. Most of the gifts he got from us where space themed. He really likes a moon that we hung on the wall that he can change to the different phases. On the day after his birthday, to celebrate some more, we took him and a friend of his to Incredibowl to go bowling, play miniature golf and laser tag. They had a great time! Overall all I think he had a great time turning 7!!

Fall 2011

Our fall was pretty much filled up with football. Mostly Payton, but Justin and I managed to make a very quick trip to Iowa City to catch a Hawkeye game! (By very quick, I mean we left at 10, right after Paytons morning flag football game. Drove 5 hours to Iowa City, checked into the hotel, changed, and walked up to the stadium with enough time to walk around a bit before the 6pm game. Then drove back the next morning!) That’s okay though, we had a great time!
The rest of our Fridays were filled with practice for Payton and games on Saturdays. We were actually really sad when the season was over. The boys got along great and we really enjoyed the other families. (It was nice though to have Saturday mornings back!) At the end of the season, Paytons team made it to the Championship game. They ended up getting second place! We were so proud of them! None of the boys had ever played before and they improved dramatically from the beginning of the season. Payton usually played quarterback so he didn’t get to score that much, but he did make a couple of touchdowns the last few games. And, yes, I cried! Football also carried through to Halloween! Easton dressed up like an Iowa football player and Payton was a referee! Payton also wanted to be a vampire though, so he did that one for trick or treating! (I wasn’t so sure about that one for school, so we played it safe at school and did the ref costume there!)